Live Blog - KKR bowlers thwart SRH's hard-hitters again

Russell adds a second wicket to his tally with a caught-and-bowled effort and KKR have sealed this with ease.

SRH skittled for 120 in the 17th over. That is some performance from KKR to seal their first home win of the season. The two points + NRR boost will also see them fly upwards on the points table to fifth position.

Hugs all around in the middle before they shake hands with the opponents. The unusually sparse crowd who watched the game Live from the venue has had an evening to remember. This performance should see more home fans coming in for the next game.

To summarise, SRH got deflated early when Arora and Harshit got them down to 9/3. Klaasen and Kamindu played some cameos, but in a chase of 201, cameos alone are not enough. Varun, Narine and Russell then picked off the rest in a swift end to the 2nd innings.

This is SRH's biggest IPL defeat (by runs)

80 runs v KKR, today

78 runs v CSK, 2024

77 runs v CSK, 2013

Varun Chakravarthy praises Angkrish's innings and how Venkatesh and Rinku finished. He felt 200 was a par score . He also says the fast bowlers were "spot on" in the powerplay and praises Rahane's captaincy today, who is still finding his feet as captain in a new franchise.

The SRH captain said 200 was gettable despite some misses on the field that had them disappointed. He says the team has to be realistic now with the batting not coming off for three games in a row. He still believes SRH's batters are the best when they're aggressive. But he concedes they could've taken different options depending on the match situations.

As for moving on from here, Cummins says he'll address it but won't want the team to dwell on it. "Not an ideal start," he says, "but still early stages of the tournament."

This game is finishing quickly. Vaibhav bowls a beautiful slower ball bouncer and Klaasen miscues it to square leg. Vaibhav exchanges some words with Klaasen and Klaasen looks back. But KKR captain Rahane runs in to mediate, calming the situation, and sends Klaasen back with a pat on his back to avoid any more drama.

Vaibhav finishes with 4-1-29-3 in another amazing performance against SRH.

Next over, the 16th, begins with Cummins holing out against Varun at long on followed by a peach to rattle Simarjeet's stumps. Varun doesn't get the hat-trick, but with SRH at nine-down, the curtains are coming down swiftly.

Klaasen tonks Narine for back-to-back sixes. Next ball, he gets an edge to the keeper but Narine and de Kock don't think there's an edge.

Klaasen gets a reprieve and Narine finishes his day at 4-0-30-1 instead of 4-0-30-2.

The South African is now at 28 off 18 with six overs to go and SRH needing 95 more. They'll need big-hits from both ends now, and Cummins is very capable of that too.

Interesting chat in the studios. Maybe something to think about ahead of their next game?

In football you see players who play for one team all their lives. In cricket, Virat Kohli has done it with RCB (so far atleast).

And among bowlers, Sunil Narine has been one of them when it comes to the IPL and the Champions League competition. He's now taken 200 wickets for KKR representing, a record only bested by Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire) - 208.

What a legacy for Narine at KKR.

Kamindu Mendis makes a spunky 27 with one four and two sixes, but he's picked off at deep midwicket via a Sunil Narine delivery that was turning away from him.

Soon after, Varun Chakravarthy gets a ball to turn into Aniket Verma, and the batter can only find the man in the deep on the leg side. SRH at 79/6 in the 11th over with Cummins joining Klaasen.

Interestingly, we haven't seen Moeen with bat or ball today.

Nitish Reddy played some beautiful shots off his hips but then goes for another aesthetic on-drive off Andre Russel in the seventh over, only to chip it for a simple catch to long-on

SRH 51/4 in 7 overs now with overseas batters Klaasen and Kamindu trying to save the game. It will be quite the effort if they succeed. ESPNcricinfo's Forecaster now has KKR at 96% favourites.

That is not a statement you read everyday. SRH eye big runs through their top three left-hand explosive batters, but they are all back in the hut in 2.1 overs. The third one is unfortunate. Ishan Kishan has absolutely nailed a cover-drive, but Ajinkya Rahane completes an excellent catch at extra cover as this hard hit even swerves away on him late.

Vaibhav Arora nearly makes it all four gone with a Kamindu Mendis hit to mid-on, but Andre Russell drops him after doing the hard work of making the ground. A possible double-wicket maiden has to make do with just a wicket-maiden. SRH 9 for 3 in three overs.

Harshit Rana has bowled a superb over to Abhishek Sharma. Nothing in his wheelhouse. Liberal use of slower balls even with the new ball. Abhishek keeps backing away and keeps deciding against the big hit seeing the ball is not within reach. He eventually has a go at the last one, Harshit has bowled yet another slower ball against expectation, and the Abhishek ends up ballooning an edge to first slip.

A rare instance of two substitutions made at the same time and both of them being called upon immediately. Vaibhav Arora bowls the first ball, and Travis Head takes first strike.

Head chips the first ball straight of mid-off for four. Arora comes back immediately with a similar big swinging delivery that Head gets under again, and Harshit Rana runs back from mid-off to take a special catch.

Deep Dasgupta, the commentator on air, makes a point that if you are going to open as an Impact Player, perhaps you are better off spending some time on the field at the end of the first innings. It can let you just feel part of the game and judge the pace of the pitch from close. However, opening the innings when batting first is no different to doing what Head just did.

Eventually the reason he is out is he was a little early into the attempted aerial off-drive. SRH 6 for 1 in one over.

SRH continue to be the most expensive bowling side in death overs since 2024. Their economy (12.66) is the worst but still pretty close to the second placed DC (12.62). But they average 34.45 in this phase while no other side has averaged over 28.

Here's the innings report:

The Indian batters in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) middle order finally came to the fore as the home team posted 200 for 6 in their first innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens.

First, it was the four sixes hit by No. 3 Ajinkya Rahane in a 27-ball 38 that dragged KKR out of a tricky situation. No. 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who scored 50 in 32 balls, gave him able support.

And then, when both batters were dismissed in quick succession, it was Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh who brought out the big shots. Venkatesh smacked 60 in 29 balls while Rinku Singh was unbeaten on a 17-ball 32.

KKR's batting performance was the first time since the fifth game of IPL 2025 (on March 25) that a team had reached 200 in the tournament. But that number looked far from possible when Zeeshan Ansari and the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis rattled KKR through the middle overs with the wickets of Rahane and Raghuvanshi.

However, with KKR batting right down to No. 9 with Moeen Ali's inclusion for this fixture, Venkatesh and Rinku freed their arms against Simarjeet Singh, Pat Cummins and Harshal Patel. KKR crunched 78 off the last five overs to take the momentum into the innings break.

From SRH's perspective, they started well, dismissing Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (7) cheaply in a strong powerplay performance.

It's been a while, friends. But KKR scored 78 off the last five overs and we have our first 200 total since match number 5.

Venky falls in the final over and Russell is run-out in the last ball so SRH need 201 to win. That score really crept up on us, huh!

A big hug between Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh in the dug-out as the innings comes to a close.

He made an unbeaten 52 in last year's final. And in the 19th over bowled by Cummins, he has tonked 4,6,4,4,2,1 to reach his fifty in only 25 balls.

With one over to go, the Rinku-Venkatesh partnership stands at 81 off just 39 balls while KKR are 187/4.

Can they breach 200?

The mandate is clear. Every ball from KKR is an attempt at a boundary. Some of them are mis-hits, but Venky - with two fours - and Rinku with a six into the Jagmohan Dalmiya stand have taken 19 off Simarjeet's final over of the evening. This partnership of 60* is operating at a run-rate of 11.25.

Rinku, retained, has done very little this season. Venkatesh, too, is in a similar boat.

But tonight they've taken a few balls to get their sights in before launching. Venkatesh has hit Simarjeet and Shami for six and four but it's Rinku's hat-trick of fours off Harshal Patel in the 17th over that has lifted KKR's momentum again.

Check out over 17 below, which has taken KKR to 149/4 in 17 overs.

With Russell, Moeen and Ramandeep still in the dugout, KKR fans would want an explosive final three overs.

Kamindu Mendis, on IPL debut for SRH tonight, has done something very unique.

To Venkatesh Iyer, he goes right-arm offspin. And to Raghuvanshi, he goes left-arm orthodox.

And guess what, the ploy has worked because Raghuvanshi has sliced the ball turning away to deep backward point!

He falls for a 32-ball 50 as Kamindu and Cummins share a laugh. Both set batters in the dug-out and KKR keep getting pegged back. However, they now have two left-hand batters (Rinku joins Venkatesh)

For now, KKR are 109/4 in 13.2 overs with all eyes on whether their middle and lower-middle order can finally step up tonight...

Our experts in the studio tonight are Sanjay Bangar and Mark Boucher. Both have been involved with IPL teams and know this tournament inside out. The feeling is that KKR have selected the wrong line-up for this fixture.

Have a watch as Raghuvanshi brings up his second IPL fifty (in 30 balls) in the 13th over with a single down the ground.

With the score at 86/2 in ten overs, KKR tried to change gears. Raghuvanshi pumped Ansari for six down the ground and then struck a reverse-sweep four.

But when Rahane tries to also reverse-sweep he gets a glove, and Klaasen's catch earns Ansari his first wicket of the night. Big breakthrough to stem KKR's momentum and Rahane walks back for a 27-ball 38.

Raghuvanshi could've also been out next ball - the first ball of the 12th bowled by Simarjeet - but Nitish floors a simple-ish catch at deep square leg! Plenty of drama in just two balls.

KKR 98/3 in 11.1 overs with Venkatesh Iyer at No. 5.`

The UP-based wristspinner Zeeshan Ansari made his IPL debut only last game. The 3 for 42 he took against DC was one of the few bright spots for SRH.

Zeeshan is a late bloomer since he was part of the U19 World Cup winning side from 2016 that featured Pant, Kishan, Washington and others, but it took him till 2025 for a maiden IPL outing. He has been picked ahead of Rahul Chahar by the management, and his revs have got the ball to turn away from the right-handers on this surface too. In his first two overs tonight, he has stuck to a fourth-stump line and has made it difficult for the batters to cut. We're yet to see the menacing googly just yet though. He's 0/12 in two overs as KKR get to 75/2 in nine overs.

It's been a neat recovery from the two players at different ends of their career. Rahane has been excellent against the short-ish deliveries, pulling both in front of square and behind.

Raghuvanshi has played more in front of square, and their running between the wickets has also been full of intent.

Three sixes off Rahane's bat and one four and six from Raghuvanshi have ensured KKR finish the powerplay at 53/2. The sixth over, bowled by Simarjeet, went for 15.

Spin introduced right away for the seventh over - Zeeshan Ansari. He took 3/42 against DC on IPL debut

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Must read: Raghuvanshi interview: "Cricket is what I want to do sleeping"

This question can end friendships. Vote carefully.

Cummins doesn't always take the new ball. But today he did, and the idea was to cramp de Kock up and make him manufacture a shot to the leg side.

De Kock enjoys pulling, but a bit of extra pace and shade more bounce forces the ball to get big on de Kock, and Cummins' plan has worked magnificently, with a miscued pull taken in the deep.

This time the KKR opening partnership is only 14, with de Kock scoring 1 in six balls. Narine goes with a seven-ball 7 next over, edging Shami's overpitched ball outside off to the keeper Klaasen.

de Kock's scores this season read 4, 97*, 1, 1. Narine's is 44, 0, 7.

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, for the third time in four games, walks in super early and he has young Angkrish Raghuvanshi joining him at No. 4. KKR 17/2 in 3 overs

A partnership of 1 in the opener. Then Narine missed a game due to illness. Next game the partnership was only 4.

Will tonight be the day the opening partnership finally gets going? Narine scored 488 runs last season at a strike-rate of 180, remember. It was enough - along with his bowling - to earn him the MVP award.

Shami, trying to avoid giving de Kock width, starts from around the wicket with a ball down the leg side. The second delivery drifts down again, off the pad, for four past the keeper. He comes over the stumps for one ball but goes back to the around-the-stumps line for Narine again.

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KKR's opening partnership in IPL 2024: Avg – 43.9, SR – 207

KKR opening partnership in IPL 2025 (after 3 games): Avg – 15.3, SR – 100

Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami and Pat Cummins are a fierce trio of seam bowlers in the IPL. It looked like an upgrade from last year too. But as a unit, they've made little impact, especially in the powerplay.

Their economy of 11.4 in the powerplay in IPL 2025 is the worst of all teams. In fact, their economy across all phases (11.7) is the second-poorest of all.

But this is Shami's home ground and he'd want to leave a mark. Some fans here love Shami and he'd hope to feed off that energy. Cummins knows this ground well too. Wickets upfront the plan for sure against a fragile batting unit.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bowl against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Kolkata.

Both sides made one change with Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis making his IPL debut for SRH as Wiaan Mulder's replacement. Mulder, and Travis Head, are both on the bench for the bowl-first XI. In an early indication that spin could be a factor tonight, KKR brought in Moeen Ali for Spencer Johnson. Moeen took 2 for 23 on a spinning surface in Guwahati in his only IPL 2025 appearance.

Cummins said they were outplayed last season in the final and he wanted to change that. He said the team spoke "a bit" about their batting issues but feels they are at their best when aggressive. He said the boys are not worried too much about it.

Ajinkya Rahane said "he was really happy" with the pitch, and wanted to bowl first too. He said he "hoped" it would suit his spinners and will need to assess conditions quickly. He revealed that the team broke down what went wrong in Mumbai.

SRH's toss decision also is interesting, since they've been a team who like to post a big total up front and then look to defend.

KKR bat-first XI: 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Rinku Singh, 5 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Andre Russell, 9 Ramandeep Singh, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

SRH bowl-first XI: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Nitish Reddy, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Aniket Verma, 6 Kamindu Mendis, 7 Simarjeet Singh, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Zeeshan Ansari

It's clear. SRH will keep attacking even if they lose wickets. It worked tremendously when they posted 286 on the opening weekend as a follow up to last year's 287.

However, the last two games showed that SRH could've posted slightly higher totals had they timed their innings better and conserved some wickets.

Cummins has said he doesn't want the intent to change, because on good days, their batting scares the living daylights of their opponents. Abhishek Sharma is one person they'd want more from: he has scored only 31 in three innings this season.

Quinton de Kock is a special batter but he he has been hit-and-miss in the IPL. He either goes big or gives nearly nothing, and with Sunil Narine at the other end, it means KKR have two openers who give them very little.

There are issues in the middle order too - their upper and lower middle order (Nos. 4 to 8) has averaged 17.22 so far this season while at 113.63. That has seen them score 174 and 116 in the two games they batted first.

In their defeat against Mumbai Indians, KKR were forced to use Manish Pandey as an impact sub in the first innings itself, and he scored 19, but that derailed their bowling plans in the second innings as they went down in a tame fashion at the Wankhede.

Wonder if they need to introduce Rahmanullah Gurbaz for his consistency? He top-scored at the 2024 T20 World Cup and was part of ICC's ODI Team of the Year last year. Last season, in the playoffs, he was an able replacement for Phil Salt too. But majorly, they need more runs from Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell.

In the aftermath of their collective batting collapse in Mumbai, their mentor Dwayne Bravo said on match eve that they need to be more crafty. Let's see what they do...

Nitish Kumar Reddy was SRH's standout domestic player in 2024, and this season, the team has unearthed another exciting talent in Aniket Verma. Despite wickets falling around him, Aniket—picked up for INR 30 lakh—has consistently taken the attack to the bowlers. His explosive 13-ball 36 against LSG was just a glimpse of what was to come, as he followed it up with a blistering 74 off 41 balls against DC.

Aniket has been one of the most destructive batters against spin in IPL 2025, smashing a boundary every three balls at a staggering strike rate of 238. His 11 sixes against spinners are second only to Nicholas Pooran's 12.

However, a concern looms over his availability—he suffered a toe injury in the nets yesterday while facing a yorker and had to hobble off. Will he recover in time to take the field? If he does, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy will have their work cut out, given his red-hot form.